


Reign of the Superbat Family

by Seasnake



Series: DC Soulmates [3]
Category: DCU (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Bat Family, Batfamily Feels, Death of Superman, Kryptonian Biology, Kryptonians have soulmates, M/M, Protectiveness, Secret Relationship, Superboy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 18:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasnake/pseuds/Seasnake
Summary: Superbat family take on The Death and Return of Superman. Tim/Kon focused. Established relationship Superman/Batman





	

**Author's Note:**

> I get tired of people dying and coming back. Either kill them or don’t. So Jason never died, just seriously injured and healed by Kryptonian medical technology. Also most of the Robins were adopted out of their bad family lives when they were younger. Get the kids into a supportive environment ASAP.

As a kid Tim wanted to be Batman. Hacking Wayne Enterprises, finding hidden files there and connecting the dots got him an audience with his hero. Bruce initially tried to brush him off, discourage him from the lifestyle. But Clark (Tim would later find out) quickly recognized that Tim needed a new home. Tim’s parents only occasionally remembered they had a son and even when they remembered they couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. Bruce and Clark took him in and were more parents to him than his mother and father had ever been. Tim also got two older brothers out of the deal, one who was awesome, Dick, and one who was a pain in the ass, Jason.

Clark and Bruce had been dating when Dick lost his parents and Bruce adopted him. During his boastful moods Dick liked to claim he’d helped get them together. Jason came along a few years afterwards. While flying out of town back to Metropolis, Clark heard a group of boys fighting on a roof and swooped in to stop it before they could make good on their threats to push one boy off the ledge. Jason was crying angry tears from being bullied and Clark ended up bringing him home. 

The latest addition to their family was probably the oddest, at least in Tim’s mind. The first girl Tim ever had a serious interest in was now his sister. Stephanie came to live at the manor when her parents were arrested, her father for being the B list criminal Cluemaster and her mother for harboring a criminal, possession of stolen merchandise, and hindering an investigation. Tim was working up the courage to ask Stephanie on a date when her parents lost custody and Tim’s fathers officially adopted her. Tim was still crushing on her, at least until Dick and (believe it or not) Jason started calling her their little sister. It was too weird to think of dating her after that. She shared Tim’s mild disappointment that their flirting all changed to platonic hugs but agreed that they couldn’t risk Jason cutting Tim’s balls off. For a violent crazy Jason had gone weirdly protective weirdly fast over Stephanie.

Despite that touch of family drama things were going well until Doomsday attacked Metropolis. They’d all wanted to help but as junior heroes they were out of their league. It was like watching a hurricane on the news, waiting and hoping nobody got hurt. Everyone thought Superman was dead, and he would be if Bruce been there to immediately scoop up Clark, administer first aid and sunlight and take him to the Fortress for treatment. The Fortress computer said Clark was in a coma and while it categorized his chance of survival as ‘good’ he might stay that way for several weeks.

Frustratingly, they had to keep all this a secret. The public and superhero community alike were furious that Batman had absconded with their hero’s corpse. Bruce had told and dropped hints to those few people he trusted but as far as everyone else knew the creepy bat was experimenting with Superman’s dead body. Luther in particular was making a fuss over this (which carried all kinds of cruel irony). Superheroes that Bruce didn’t clear couldn’t be told because they couldn’t have well meaning idiots trying to help, hanging out at the fortress, or get their hopes up in case Clark didn’t pull through. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Kent were aware of the situation and were covering Clark’s secret identity by telling everyone their son was visiting. Bruce had never liked Matrix (aka Supergirl) and trusted her even less since she’d become chummy with Luthor. Without Clark around to keep the peace between Bruce kept her off the need-to-know list and locked out of the fortress. 

The Fortress AI was programmed to obey Clark first and foremost and therefore considered his husband and adopted children as close relatives. Plus when Clark and Bruce committed to their relationship Bruce learned Kryptonian computers and reprogrammed the AI. Clark had been content to let the technology do its own thing and deal with it whenever there was a bug. Bruce’s proactive approach erased all malignant programming and bugs lingering in the system. All this meant, the Fortress obediently kept Supergirl locked out when she tried to get in.

Bruce, as Bruce Wayne, went to Metropolis to help reconstruction and make sure Luthor didn’t take advantage of the situation to expand his powerbase. He split his time there, making sure Batman kept the superhero community calm, and communicating with the four kids and Alfred, remaining head of house despite his distance. As well as all that he visited the Fortress whenever he could to check on Clark personally. 

One of the parents was sick which meant the children had to step up. Dick moved back to Gotham to oversee Batman duties. Jason traveled around Gotham, Metropolis, and anywhere else he felt needed, basically beating up anyone who tried to take advantage of Superman’s absence. Steph was the baby of the family and therefore mostly side kicked for Dick, Jason, and Barbra and helped Alfred out around the house.

Tim’s main job was to monitor Clark’s condition through the link the Batcomputer had with the Fortress. Learning Kryptonian had been a hobby for him before this started now it became a necessity because he wasn’t going to trust translated medical data. He and Barbra took over a lot of communications and information gathering for the shell shocked superhero community. With all that and school he didn’t have much of anything he’d call free time. 

In the wake of Superman’s absence three new ‘heroes’ appeared in Metropolis. 

John Henry Irons had been building his suit for a while, Dick had noticed his increased purchases of materials and technology. Irons was already on Bruce’s radar as a genius engineer, weapon designer, and the kind of well meaning citizen that might decide to go vigilante. He probably just added the S to his outfit as a memorial and had been named The Man of Steel by the people he saved rather than by himself. So, Irons became part of the low threat folder.

The android, because it was an android with vestigial biological parts not a true cyborg no matter what it called itself, had the most convincing story for the public but was clearly not entirely Kryptonian tech. It was on some manner of secret mission but could simply be malfunctioning or poorly programmed and therefore went in the mid threat folder.

The clone, origin: lab owned by Project Cadmus. Unknown threat, potentially high if truly Kryptonian. That was the extent of their, or anyone's, knowledge.

There were three imposters and four children so Dick decided to divvy up the work.  
Jason insisted on taking Irons. Dick was filling in for Batman so a fan of Superman probably wouldn’t want to talk to the apprentice of the man who stole Superman’s body. Jason’s identities after Robin weren’t particularly connected to Batman. That plus Irons was fighting a crime boss. 

Every city had gangs, it was inevitable. Fear of Superman and the atmosphere of Metropolis and so far kept the violence mostly nonfatal. But since Superman’s death things had escalated dangerously. Collecting gang banners was Jason’s favorite type of beat down so he volunteered to recon The Man of Steel. Along with normal file stuff, weaknesses, strengths, fighting style, contact information, ect. he’d keep an eye on this new comer to the superhero community and speak with him if necessary. 

Stephanie had been training in combat and acrobatics with Dick and Jason and now wanted to take this opportunity to improve her engineering skills. She asked to be assigned as quartermaster and apprentice under Harold in making counter tech to these new heroes. 

As the best hacker in the family, not counting Barbra but she was busy trying to keep the grieving superhero community from falling apart, Tim got assigned the cyborg. He spent his evenings in the cave with Dick’s comlink up on one screen, the Fortress on a second, and footage of the android on a third. Kryptonian alloy but human programming, definitely. 

In his scant free time or when he was only doing two of the afore mentioned things, Tim also looked up what he could about the teenage superman.  
He could fly and no real family so he was hard to track. At least until he showed up on the news. Really? He’s a clone with no memories and decides, I know what I’ll do, I’ll be on TV.

=Later=  
Robin picked up the quieter hours of patrol so Dick could take a break. Plus he needed the exercise after so much computer work. He heard a scuffle from a side street and went to investigate. Two ruffians were beating a boy half their size. Robin repelled down to break it up. He knocked out one assailant and drew his staff on the second when a figure in red and blue unexpectantly dropped from the sky. 

This new arrival shouted something about being nice to attractive people, punched the second ruffian, and then advanced on Tim. Tim barely had time to brace for an attack before a thin but strong arm wrapped around his waist and carried him into the air. 

“You’re really hot up close.” Tim turned towards the source of the voice and only registered pale skin and unnaturally blue eyes before face came even closer and something warm pressed against his lips. Tim’s brain stayed stuck on a repeating cycle of ‘What? What?!’ for several seconds. 

The meta finally ended Tim’s first kiss. He set Tim down on a roof and pulled back to a slightly more reasonable distance. The teenage Superman imposter, Tim’s brain finally came back online. “No need to thank me.”

“Thank you?!” Tim backed away. “You can’t just go around kissing people!” 

"Why not?" He pondered this for a second then smirked. “If you’re jealous, I’ll just kiss you.”

“What? No, ask before you do that.” Tim said then thought of a better question. “Why’d you do it anyway?”

“Cause you’re cute,” he spoke as if this was obvious.

“Cute?”

“Hot, attractive, ten out of ten,” he said this with a grin as if it were the term that Tim took offense to rather than the sentiment. Tim gaped at him then quickly closed his mouth. “What’s your name, Gorgeous?” 

“Robin. Why are you in Gotham?” Tim wrangled his professionalism back into place.

“I can fly superfast. I was looking for people to save and found you.”

“I didn’t need saving, I was doing fine.”

“Maybe not but you were a hero my age. I wanted to meet you. I don’t know, I flew over you and had to introduce myself. Now I’m glad I did, that was the best kiss I’ve had.”

“Really?”

“Why would I lie about that? You’ve got a magnetic personality or something.”

Tim doubted this for a second longer then remembered what Clark had said about Kryptonian mating drives. “Do you feel drawn to me? Like you were looking for something and finally found it.”

“Totally! You feel that way too? I mean, I’ve kissed babes before but you’re way awesome. We should hang out.” Uh oh. Clark explained once that Kyrptonians mate for life and he’d never really been interested in anyone before Bruce. Sounded like this boy really was Kryptonian. 

Tim’s brain ran possibilities as quickly as possible. This clone was still an unknown quantity. Assuming he had all of Superman’s powers he would be very hard to keep secrets from. He was probably unstable, could be working for Cadmus, far too dangerous for Tim to try to manage alone. Best get distance now and regroup.  
“No, I don’t feel the same way. Leave me alone and get out of Gotham.” He did his best Batman impression and launched a grapple to a nearby building.

Tim continued his patrol a little bit before stopping. Was the flying red and blue blur tailing him trying to be stealthy? That was just sad. “Why are you following me?”  
“How’d you see me?” He floated closer. Tim decided not to debase his delusion of stealth. “I’m going to win you over.”

“Win me over?”

“Make you like me.”

“You can’t make someone like you.”

“Not mind control or anything, I don’t think I can do that. And even if I could that wouldn’t be cool. I wouldn’t use it on you,” he rambled a bit. “I just need to show you how awesome I am so you’ll like me. Keep doing your superhero thing and I’ll swoop in and save you again.” Tim stared at him for a second. Was this guy for real?

“I’m almost done tonight.” Was all he could really think of to say. Maybe he could sent the clone away and invite him back tomorrow night, giving Tim time to alert the others.

“Done?”

“Patrolling.”

“Then what do you do?”

“Go home.” The clone’s expression remained largely blank. “Sleep, do my homework, eat.” Tim realized what the problem probably was. “I’m not Robin all the time.”

“You’re someone else?”

“Robin is my superhero name, I take off my mask and do things in my civilian identity.”

“Oh,” he finally seemed to comprehend. “I don’t have that. I’m always Superman. What’s your other name?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Come on, I told you mine.”

“You said you don’t have one.”

“See? I told you it. Now what’s yours?” He leaned in a bit too close for comfort.

“I can’t tell you, you might tell someone else.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“I don’t know that.” This made Superboy frown, no way was Tim calling him ‘Superman’ in his thoughts.

“Superman was trustworthy, right? Well I’m his clone.”

“That just means you share DNA, that doesn’t mean you have the same personality.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah, you know what identical twins are? It’s like that.”

“Oh,” Superboy made that connection then quickly started talking defensibly. “I’m not stupid. If I don’t know something it’s not my fault it’s because the people at Cadmus didn’t teach me it.”

Tim nodded reassuringly before asking. “How long have you been out?”

“Uh, about eight days.”

“Really? You’re doing really well in that case,” Tim offered a bit of true flattery to grease the wheels. 

“Thanks.” His chest puffed up almost a comical amount. “So how to do I prove I’m trustworthy?”

“Don’t tell anyone we met. Meet me here same time tomorrow night.” Easy answer.

“Sure, but if I can’t tell anyone than you can’t tell anyone.”

“Alright.” Seeing the clone again in a controlled situation was worth holding off telling the others.

-Next Day-  
Tim double checked his research on the clone. It was amazing how he kept managing to find scantily clad women to save. Jason had tried something similar at sixteen and didn’t have nearly as much luck. Either someone in charge of Superboy’s memories at Cadmus was a perv with serious relationship issues or effectively being born as a teenager with all the accompanying hormones just screwed him up. Tim left information for Dick to find if something went awry, then went to the randaview point. 

He found Superboy sitting cross legged and visibly bored. He perked up when he spotted Tim.  
“I waited for you.”

“Thanks. Where did you get that earring?” 

“You like it?” No, but Tim didn’t say that. “Cadmus.”

“That so? Let me see it.” Superboy shrugged and leaned into Tim’s space rather than take it off. Tim held back a sigh and ran a scanner over the other boy’s earring. No surprise when it chimed. 

“What’s that?”

“Shush,” Tim hushed him then unclasped the jewelry with as minimal fondling of Superboy’s ear as possible. He dealt with far more complex technology every day so had no difficulty popping open the small metal device once he had it in his hands. “This is a tracker,” he explained once he’d disabled it. 

“What?! They were watching me?”

“Doesn’t look like it transmits audio or video.”

“Those Jerks!” Superboy crossed his arms in a huff. “I guess that explains how Guardian found me.”

“What can you tell me about Cadmus?”

“Uh, not much. Packard and Westfield were doctors there. Guardian was security. The Newsboys escaped with me, they might know more. Do you think they’d come after me?”

“They probably put a lot of money and resources into making you.”

“I hate that. I’m not just some weapon.”

“I’m not saying you are.”

Superboy sighed and seemed to calm down a bit. “Thanks for getting that off me. I don’t want them to mess with my life.” With a small shudder he also admitted. “I’m not going back in some test tube!” The anger didn’t completely cover the nerves in his voice.

“I’ll do whatever I can to prevent that,” Tim said honestly. No sentient being deserved to be treated that way.

“You will?” Superboy smiled. He seemed to appreciate the sentiment but also added, “Thanks but you don’t have to. I’m Superman, I should protect you.”

“All the time?” Tim said this then realized a different approach would work better. “You have other people to save, you can’t watch me all the time.”

“Even if I’m in Metropolis I could get here fast enough.”

“That’s not the point, I don’t want anyone to die because of me.”

“I know. You’re a good person, Rob, I can tell.”

Tim ended up letting him tag along on patrol. Fortunately it was quiet, Dick had done a good job keeping things calm, so they spent most of the time talking. Tim lectured him on the superhero lifestyle and protocol. Superboy was happy to share everything he knew about Cadmus. He wanted to follow Tim home or know his real name but Tim insisted on meeting him again the next night.

Back at the cave Tim updated his private file on Superboy and considered telling Dick but ultimately chose not to betray the trust of the so far well-meaning clone.

The next night Superboy showed up on time again. Sweet, cheerful, and eager to please it was easy to forget that he was also extremely dangerous, a hot-headed idiot, and hunted by powerful people. That last part only made Tim’s stupid inner hero want to protect him, so it wasn’t really a discouragement. In a moment of weakness Tim fell for the alien blue puppy eyes and rewarded him for his continued attendance and secrecy with his name and address. He couldn’t help it, the obnoxious clone was the most unbeguiling person he’d ever met. 

What he really should have done is tell the others about befriending the clone but Superboy kept insisting that if he couldn’t tell anyone about Tim than Tim shouldn’t be able to tell anyone. Lying to the clone would break the trust they’d formed and Tim didn’t want to try and explain how their situations were different and risk him talking to his reporter friend.  
All he could do is hope this didn’t come back to bite him.

-Later-  
Jason rang a conference call to the whole family from Metropolis. “Bad news, gang. We’ve got an unidentified monster biting people in the spine and turning those who don’t die into metahumans.”

“Unidentified?”

“I didn’t recognize it. Irons got a better look than I did. I was a bit busy securing its hideout and victims. Tissue sample’s processing, I’ll send the results when it’s done.”

“While we have everyone on line, update on the Cyborg, Robin.”

“B’s Pentagon connections sent me a decent portion of the code the cyborg used,” Tim went ahead. “All binary. We’re definitely looking at something of Earth origin despite the Kryptonian alloy. From what I’ve seen it shouldn’t be able to access the cave or the fortress long distance if at all.”

#Later#  
Tim was dragged from sleep by a tactile sensation. His alarm hadn’t sounded but something was digging into his back. He tried to turn over, still half asleep but couldn’t move freely. Something warm and heavy shared his bed. It took a second longer to realize it was person shaped.

Panic flashed through is mind but training took over. He could recognize that he was in his own bed, where he remembered going last night. He’d only shared a bed with his nanny of the week when he had a nightmare or more recently once with Dick. Given these facts, Tim felt justified in kicking. 

“Hey!” The brightly colored intruder gave a whine as he was shoved to the carpet.

“Superboy, man?” Tim corrected himself before he could cause offense. 

“What was that for?” He had the nerve to look indignant from the floor. He wore his normal one piece but sans any accessories. His boots, gloves, belts, and jacket were all at the foot of Tim’s bed. 

“What are you doing in my bed? I told you this was a secret.” 

“Uh, I was lonely. And it’s not like I was followed or anything.”

“You can’t just sneak in here. How’d you even get in?” Tim glanced to the window. If Superboy got in without setting off an alarm Tim must have forgot to arm it last night.

“The window was open. Maybe I should have asked first, but you were asleep.” Superboy finally looked a little guilty. “I didn’t want to wake you up.” Tim did forget to arm it then.

“Why are you even here? I thought I was boring.”

Superboy shrugged. “You’re still hot.” After his rude awakening Tim wasn’t in the most forgiving of moods and hit him hard about the head with a pillow. 

“That’s not a good reason!” Superboy hadn’t been around pillows much, based on the way he frowned at Tim’s chosen weapon.

“You’re also one of my only friends. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” 

Tim couldn’t argue with that and leaned back in bed with a sigh. “Do you have anyplace to stay?” It occurred to him that the clone didn’t have a home. Superboy shrugged.

“I was hanging out at Tana’s place.”

“That reporter you talked to?”

“Yeah.”

“If you want your own place I can find you something.” Tim saw an opportunity to get him away from the press.

“Or I could stay here,” he said hopefully. Superboy climbed half-way back onto Tim’s bed that was probably supposed to be seductive. Even sadder than this sad attempt was that Tim fell for it by watching the muscles flexing in his arms. 

“You really can’t.” Tim tucked the pillow closer to himself, making it a shield this time. “My family is…” He frowned and retried that sentence. “My family wouldn’t approve of you being here. I don’t want them to know yet.” 

Superboy tilted his head slightly. “You’re a hero.”

“Which is part of the reason. Look there’s a community to superheroes, it’s complicated.”

“Sounds boring. Why can’t we just be together?” Superboy dropped his upperbody into Tim’s lap.

“Just trust me on this, okay? It’ll be easier if they don’t know.”

“If you say so.” Supeboy shrugged. “So are we sleeping more now or doing something fun?” Tim doubted that was meant as an innuendo so just glanced at the clock. Only fifteen minutes before he would have gotten up anyway.

“Do you have x-ray vision?”

“Of course I do. I just haven’t figured out how to turn it on yet.”

“Right. If you cover your eyes I’ll change clothes and then I should be able to sneak you down to the lab. You have to do as I say though.”

“Is this going to be how our relationship always is? You bossing me around?”

“You’re a couple weeks old.”

“Cadmus downloaded a lot of memories while I was in the lab.”

“That explains how you know how to talk.” Tim stood up, shoving the pillow over Superboy’s eyes on his way to the closet. “Peek and I’m kicking you out.” 

Tim quickly changed out of his pajamas. Superboy kept his face covered and felt around blindly for his clothes. “Here,” Tim handed his silly leather jacket to him. “You can look now.”

“You’re not in uniform?”

“I’m not going out tonight. Come on.” 

Dick was out, Steph asleep, Jason in Metropolis, so Tim just made sure Alfred wasn’t around then snuck Superboy down to the cave.

“This place is awesome.” Superboy floated around the cave, looking at things.

“Don’t break anything,” Tim got to work on the computer.

“What do you do for fun here?”

“I can analyze your DNA.”

“That’s fun?”

“Don’t you want to know how close of a clone to Superman you are?”

“Kinda,” that got Superboy floating closer to the lab equipment. 

Tim set up the system to run on his private server, Bruce and Dick could probably hack into it if they wanted but they wouldn’t bother unless there was something suspicious. It was going to take the computer a few hours to process his DNA so Superboy whined about having nothing to do. Tim showed him around a little bit and let him use some of the exercise and trapeze equipment. He then grappled with him a bit and pinned him immediately. Superboy was strong but had no combat training and didn’t seem to understand this distinction. Tim had just finished teaching him how to throw a proper punch when Dick entered the cave and Tim had to quickly sneak him out the back exit.

*Next Day*  
Superboy was back in Tim’s room and had apparently gone through all of his things while waiting for him. Tim had been expecting this visit and purposefully left the window open for him. Tim let him listen to his music and insult it all before starting a serious conversation. 

“I have the results from testing your DNA if y…”

“Yeah?” Superboy interrupted. “I’m a clone right?” Not even questioning if Tim had Superman’s DNA to compare to. Either his faith in Tim was nice or didn’t know how DNA worked.

“You’re definitely a clone of Superman.” 

“Told ya.”

“Supes, there’s more than that,” Tim tried to lead into this gently.

“What are you talking about?” Now he was concerned.

“According to this you’re only about half Kryptonian.” Tim passed him his laptop so he could see the readout.

“What?!” Superboy grabbed the device and gaped at the screen. 

“You’re also Human. About 35 to 45%. Kryptonians and Humans share some genetics so the quick test couldn’t be more accurate than that.”

“So what? They didn’t know how to handle Kryptonian DNA and mixed other stuff in?” He looked at Tim for explanation. 

“It’s possible.” Jason was a living example but Superboy didn’t need to know that. “We can’t know for sure though, I’m sorry.”

Superboy frowned at the screen a second longer then set it aside. “It’s not your fault. Thanks for looking into this for me, Tim.”

Tim took his laptop back then asked something he’d been wondering about. “Do you have a name other than Superman?”

“No…I think I was Project 13 at Cadmus.” Tim felt bad about brining it up. 

“You’re a Kryptionian. You should have a Kryptonian name.” He ran his hand through Superboy’s hair in apology. Superboy liked playing with his hair and really liked it when Tim played with it. 

“Hmm?” He leaned into Tim’s hand like a puppy, or a touch starved boy with no sense of decorum. 

“Superman’s Kal-El so your last name would be El. Something-El.”

“Supes-El, huh?” He considered that in silence for a minute. “Do you have a TV?”

“I can put on a movie if you want. Show you some of the classics.”

Tim put on Citizen Kane because he wished someone had shown it to him before he’d heard the plot twist spoiled a dozen different ways. He answered Superboy’s questions about black and white film, cultural things he didn’t understand, let him whine about the slow bits, and whine about the ending when they got there. He was debating whether or not he should get Superboy started on Star Wars (maybe wait on the SciFi until he had a better understanding of the real world), or Die Hard (that would be right up his alley but Tim worried he’d start repeating the ‘yippiekaiay’ line) when he remembered something else they needed to talk about.

“Supes.”

“Hm?” 

“You need to stop talking to the press.”

“Why?” After several conversations with Superboy Tim was prepared for this inevitable question. 

“Because I’m worried about you. You’re strong but Superman just died and I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

“What does that have to do with being a bit famous?”

“You can’t let people know about you.” Tim thought this was reasonable but Superboy seemed to disagree. “Stop pouting at me.”

“Stop being a buzzkill.”

“Ugh, okay, come look at this.” Tim pulled him over to his computer. He loaded up the last footage of the Android he’d been analyzing. “This is news footage, right. Here’s what I got from a couple frames.” He minimized that and pulled up the edited version that he had covered with calculations. “I know how tall he is so I can measure how far his arm extends, estimate the weight of the truck, and how far he throws it. This is the heaviest thing I’ve seen him pick up to date and he doesn’t move which means he can withstand at least that mount of force when attacked.” He could have kept going but stops when Superboy leans against his back.

“Wow, you’re pretty smart, Rob.”

“There are lots of people smarter than I am.” Tim turned to frown at him. “Every second you’re on film you’re giving things away.”

After being dislodged by Tim’s swivel Superboy leaned back into his space. “You’re kinda paranoid, you know.”

“It’s a family thing. Now can you please stop it with the news?”

“For you?” Superboy smiled obnoxiously while very close to Tim’s face. 

“For me.” Tim didn’t want him to get hurt. That admission got Superboy grinning happily. How did such a numerically young clone get so observant? Or was it just a lucky guess paired with flirtation?

“You know, Tana’s going to be angry. She was going to make me a lot of money. Can you make it worth my while for giving that up?” Okay, that was definitely a line he’d picked up from somewhere weird. 

“Are you trying to make me jealous?”

“Is it working?” Something in his tone of voice pissed Tim off.

“If you want to pander to a blood sucking reporter who only sees you as her next pay day, go ahead.” Tim shoved him away and faced his computer screen.

“Aw, come on, don’t be mad.” Superboy whined. “I was just kidding.” Tim groaned, stupid eager-to-please puppy in an unfairly sexy fifteen year-old’s body. Superboy looked ready to fly off in a huff and do something stupid if Tim didn’t forgive him so Tim relented. 

“I have to do some work on my laptop but I can do that and watch another movie.”

“Okay, but something more exciting this time.” Tim decided that because Superboy was the kind of guy to watch dumb action movies best to show him a good one of the genre before he got hooked on the bad ones.

“Alright, you’ll like this one. It’s considered the best heist movie ever made. But don’t repeat the swear words, okay?”

“I know how to swear, Rob. I just don’t cause it’s rude and not heroic.”

Superboy ended up being far more freaked by the blood than anything else. He even hid his face behind Tim for the close up of McClain pulling glass out of his foot. Tim forgot about that, after being part of the Bat family for years it was hard to be squeamish about anything.

After the movie Tim gave Superboy the address to one of the fully stocked safe houses in Gotham if he needed a place to stay.

_Later_  
Trying to find movies for Superboy was harder than Tim expected. He didn’t want to confuse him with scifi or fantasy yet, Superboy might be okay with horror movies but Tim didn’t care for them, and most classic movies had either romance or family as a theme that would either give Superboy bad ideas to take Tim out on dates or make him sad that he didn’t have any family.

“Black and white again?” Superboy complained when Tim turned on the movie he had carefully selected.

“No fight scenes but as long as you pay attention to the dialogue I promise it’s really intense.” Superboy made a show of sighing and sprawling on Tim’s bed. But he was engrossed in 12 Angry Men by the end.

Tim was then a good friend, got out his laptop so he could ignore the inaccuracies of the film, and put on Jaws. They were only fifteen minutes into the film when they were interrupted. The door to the hallway rattled and the handle shook. “Tim?” Stephanie’s voice called through the wood. “Why’s your door locked?”

“Crap!” Tim hissed and leapt up. He grabbed Superboy and pulled him to the closet. He opened his mouth to say something but Tim shushed him. “Be quiet, stay in here.” He closed the clone in the closet then went to let Steph in. 

“What was that about? You doing something dirty in here?” She teased him when he finally let her in.

“Steph.” He complained mildly while eyeing the box she carried.

“Right, wouldn’t even ask me out.”

“That’s not funny, Steph.”

“Sorry. Still getting used to this whole having a family thing.” She dropped the case on his bed. “Gifts. Harold and I finished your new hacking, rewiring, welding and Kryptonian-alloy cutting tools.”

Clone hiding in his closet or not, Tim had to open the case to look at these. “This all to my specifications?” 

“Course. Harold’s pretty awesome. We should have him over more often.” Harold had been a close family friend since Dick was young, he’d taught Tim a lot.

“He’s cool. You put extra pouches?” he asked as he picked up the new belt.

“Organize it however you want.” She sat down on his bed which reminded him that she needed to leave. “Actually, I’m going to nap some more now.”

“I’ll get out of hair, then.” She started towards the door but kept talking. “When you’re not busy we need to see Dick. He’s putting us through more training again.”

“He and Bruce think the neck bitters are aliens and I think they’re worried about us fighting our first alien invasion.”

“It’s nice to be cared about, I guess.” She let herself out.

“Thanks for the supplies,” Tim said as goodbye then locked the door behind her.

He went back to looking through the box until he realized that Superboy hadn’t burst out of the closet as expected. Tim opened the door to check on him and found the clone sulking with arms and legs crossed and a sour frown.

“What?”

“You were mad about Tana and you’ve got a girlfriend?”

“What? No, Steph’s my sister. Adopted but still, sister.” Tim hadn’t gotten to date Steph when he wanted to, he certainly wasn’t going to be accused of it now that he didn’t like her that way.

“She didn’t sound like a sister.”

“What should a sister sound like?”

“She said something about your dick.”

“Oh God,” Tim facepalmed. “No! That’s Dick our brother. Short for Richard. You didn’t listen to the entire conversation did you?”

Superboy shrugged. He kept pouting but looked far less contrite about it than before. “What’s the bit about the Kryptonian alloy?”

“Weapons to fight the cyborg. So I can cut through his armor incase I encounter him.”

“Harsh, man. Do you have things to hurt me too?” Superboy looked at him with big blue eyes. Tim guiltily bit his cheek.

“We have Kryptonite. But no, nothing specifically designed for you. That’s part of why I don’t want the others to know you’re here. If I told them about you I’d have to start coming up with countermeasures. That’s the rule.” Superboy frowned so Tim continued. “Look, we don’t have any superpowers. We’re just humans so we have to be smarter than everyone else. Have a way to counter every meta we meet so it can be a fair fight.”

“So being freaky smart and paranoid’s your power?”

“I guess.”

“That’s weird. I mean, even I know that’s weird.” Superboy was finally smiling again.

8Later8  
In Metropolis Jason revealed himself to Irons to help fight some gangsters.  
“You’re the one who’s been following me.” Irons guessed correctly. 

“I was elected to confirm you were a well meaning citizen rather than a psycho alien or something.” Jason punched one last gang member to the ground. “Consider this your initiation to the global community.”

“You’re not part of the Justice League or any team I’ve heard of.”

“Not officially but I have them on speed dial if you want confirmation.” The gang was down and Jason wasn’t at all concerned by Irons continuing to hold his hammer in a defensive position. “Anyway, I’m here to talk about that red monster you fought last week. My connections are thinking it’s alien.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I need to examine that surviving victim.”

“Tom?”

“He’s under your protection and I don’t want a meta freaking out on me when I try to give him a physical.”

“You won’t hurt him?”

“I’ve got access to the Metahuman Minors Health Foundation. If anything I can get him a referral to proper medical care.”

/Later/  
Tim was in the cave when the alarm he’d set up on his window alerted him that he had a visitor. He left as quickly as he could without drawing attention. The others had started to notice his increased absences and time spent in his room. Fortunately, they hadn’t yet guessed that he was hiding a boy in his room.

Tim opened the door a creak to make sure it really was Superboy and not someone else before entering. 

“Tim, hey, quick question. Do you know Supergirl?”

“Yes, why? Did you meet her?”

“Yeah. So I stopped working for GBS like you said. Tana was actually pretty cool about it. But I still had to save these cars from falling off a bridge right, and then Supergirl showed up and asked me to come meet a friend of hers.”

“Luthor, I should have known. Listen, Supergirl’s a hero, her heart is in the right place but she’s dating this really bad guy.”

“Dating?”

“She’s not Kryptonian the same way you and Superman are. Luthor tricked her into loving him. You can fight alongside Supergirl, Superman did, but don’t let her bring you anywhere near Luthor.”

“He’s really that bad?” Superboy seemed appalled by this. “Shouldn’t someone stop him from hurting her?”

“Supes,” Tim grabbed his arm. This was a hard thing to explain. Hell, Tim didn’t fully understand it. “Superman already talked to her. She’s an adult and she can make her own decisions. As long as he doesn’t actually hurt her there’s nothing to be done about it.”

“You don’t want me near him though?”

Tim shook his head. “It’s complicated but the Luthors have hurt Superman in the past. Matrix, Supergirl, has forgiven Lex for it but nobody in my family has. I don’t trust him.”

“Okay, then. If it will make you happy I won’t talk to him.” Superboy pulled Tim in for a quick kiss. “You worry too much already.”

“Someone has to, and it’s not going to be you.” Tim wrapped his arms around the clone’s waist without even thinking about it.

“Can I kiss you again?”

“You forgot to ask the first time.” Tim chastised lightly. Superboy pouted with purposeful exaggeration. Tim rolled his eyes. “Thanks for talking to me about this. Yes we can kiss now.”

+Later+  
Tim just woke up and was eating breakfast with Steph and Alfred when Dick came up the stairs, still wearing his Nightwing gear.

“Good news, Clark woke up half-an-hour ago. Bruce is with him now.” 

“He’s going to be okay?” Steph asked.

“The Fortress computers think so. He wants to come home but Bruce is making him stay to recuperate.” 

“Good news indeed, Master Richard, perhaps a celebratory breakfast?” Alfred spoke up. With this family reminding people to eat was an hourly chore for him.

“Thanks Alfred,” Dick sat down happily. “Superman will be back in a few days and we can finally get this mess with the imposters sorted out.”

“And he’s awake before the invaders land.”

“About that, no signals, Tim?”

“Not on the frequencies I’ve been monitoring but I can’t do everything.”

“I know we’ve been putting a lot of pressure on you guys but it’ll get better.” Dick reached over to and gave him a hug. 

“It’s okay, we can handle it.” Steph came round the table to join the hug. She was just as big a hugger as Dick.

^Later^  
They got to say hi to Clark on video call. It was good to see him healthy and smiling as always. He wanted to get back to work and do something about the imposters. He insisted he was fine and Bruce was just being over cautious about his health by making him stay at the Fortress. 

“There’s something else we need to tell you.” Clark looked embarrassed. “You’re going to have a new little sibling.” Tim wondered if he was talking about Superboy but Bruce spoke.

“The Fortress computer decided that because Clark was in critical condition it needed to make an infant. It combined our DNA and is growing a baby in a test tube right now.”

“Seriously?”

“Congrats, I guess.” 

“I thought you reprogrammed the computer, Bruce.” Tim said after Steph and Dick voiced their opinions.

“The program was to make a clone of the injured patient ‘for preservation of life’. I assumed this was for organ transplantation. I didn’t read it after we were married and the program changed to ‘preservation of house lineage’. Don’t ever assume.” Bruce grumbled this. Clark patted him sympathetically.

“The baby will be born in two weeks.”

“‘Made’ in two weeks,” Bruce corrected.

“He’s a boy. We’re going to name him Damian,” Clark finished.

“Awesome,” Dick smiled.

“Does he have a Kryptonian name? Do we have Kryptonian names?” Steph leaned closer to the computer screen.

“Ian-El. And Kryptonians recognize adoption, so yes, you can have Kryptonian names, too.” Clark was beaming with pride. While the others continued to talk Tim took a moment to wonder if he would be this excited about Superboy being his son. 

&Later&  
Luthor was useful for a couple things, one of them prevention against alien invasions. He spotted an alien vessel approaching Coast City California before the Bat tech or Fortress did. Not that that helped when the ship attacked Coast City. A dust cloud and electronic interference made it hard to tell what happened. The only thing everyone could agree on was that the Cyborg Superman and Superboy had been in the area before the explosion. 

Tim tried not to let his nerves show, more than anyone could be nervous about a city disappearing, until the Cyborg contacted both the news and the Justice League. He claimed that Superboy worked with the aliens to destroy the city, that the alien ship returned to outer space, and the Justice League should follow it while he searched for survivors. Dick, Steph, Alfred, and Tim were in the cave, Jason on the line from Metropolis and Clark and Bruce from the Fortress. This meant that his entire family was in attendance when Tim lost his cool. He was so surprised that the Cyborg would try to frame innocently oblivious Superboy for something so heinous and so offended that people actually seemed to be buying it that when doctored footage of Superboy acting evil appeared, he ended up shouting,

“What? No! He wouldn’t do that!” Everyone stopped to stare at him. Tim was struck between blushing in shame and going white in fear, hopefully these symptoms met halfway and nothing showed on his cheeks.

“Something you want to tell us, Robin?” Batman, of course, recovered first.

“I’ve spoken with him.” He admitted then quickly tried to get the topic back on track. “He’s really naïve, the Cyborg must have pinned this on him.”

“When?”

“How?”

“Talked?” his siblings asked.

“Later,” Bruce barked, thankfully silencing the interrogation for the moment.

“We’ll contact the League,” Batman spoke up. “The rest of you take the Wing to Coast City. We’ll regroup on the way there.”

“Be careful,” Clark added from where he stood over Batman’s shoulder before the call ended.

They reconnected once they were in the air. Dick flew a Batwing with Steph and Tim on board while Bruce and Clark came from the North Pole.

“Where’s the rest of the League?” Steph asked.

“They didn’t believe us,” Clark’s irritated voice came over the commlink. “They accused B of faking the transmition. I talked to them and they didn’t believe it was me.”

“They trust the Cyborg more than B?” Steph asked with amazement.

“A tactical risk of my position.” Batman said dismissively.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Clark said. “Hal’s on his way back from deep space but until then we’re on our own.”

“Or maybe not,” Dick spoke up from the pilot’s seat. “Supergirl approaching at 4’oclock.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Clark volunteered.

“You sure you’re ready to fly?” B asked.

“I’m fine. Superman off line for a minute.”

“Geeze, a month of not having to listen them bicker and now it’s the first thing I hear.” Jason’s voice joined the conversation.

“Red’s on the com. Where are you?” Tim said then tried to pull up Jason’s position on the GPS.

“Man of Steel and I are on the ground at the moment. Superboy found us.” Tim carefully didn’t blurt out a question after his health. “Confirms Robin’s theory about the Cyborg’s double cross. Very eager to talk to Robin.” Jason said this last part in a worrisome tone of voice. “Sure, here, take my extra.” A rustle came from Jason’s side then a new commlink joined the conversation.

“Rob? You there?” Superboy sounded frantic.

“I’m here. This is a public line don’t…”

“I didn’t do it! I’d never do anything like that! You got to believe me, Rob! It’s a frame up. It was that robot psyco. He’s got some kind of program that lets him fake broadcasts. He blew up Coast City! He’s building some creepy engine there and he’s working with this yellow alien who took too many steroids and calls him ‘Master’. He locked me up but I got away.”

“We believe you. Listen. My siblings and Batman are on this line. We’re flying to Coast City right now.”

“Good, okay. Who’s this Red Hood guy? He’s kinda freaking me out.”

“He can hear you. This is an open line,” Tim tried again to explain that.

“Why? What are you worried he’s going to tell us?” Steph asked.

“Is that your sister?” At least he had enough presence of mind not to say ‘Steph’.

“He said that like he knows me. How do you know my voice, Superboy?”

“Don’t call me ‘Superboy’!”

“Enough! We’ll discuss that later.” Batman interrupted. The promise in his voice did nothing to ease Tim’s anxiety for the coming talk. “The yellow alien, was his name Mongul?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Superboy answered.

“Then we’re dealing with Warworld.” Superman was back online. For how long, Tim didn’t know.

“Superman, take Supergirl and meet up with Man of Steel, Red Hood, and the boy,” Batman took charge.

“Right, I’ll get things under control.”

“Hey, can I get some food? I’m pretty hungry.” Superboy sounded like he was talking to people in front of him rather than his com line. 

Tim switched Superboy’s com to a private line with only his. He was still sitting in the jet with Steph and Dick but at least they’d only here his side of the conversation. “Supes, you alright?”

“What? Yeah, not a scratch on me, Rob.”

“Good Superman’s coming to meet you. Just do as he says, alright?”

“Superman’s alive? The real Superman?”

“I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Right when we don’t have to save the world. The Cyborg wants to level Metropolis next.”

“We won’t let that happen. Just be careful and don’t tell Red Hood anything about how we know each other.”

“No problem.”

“I’m turning off your comlink now.” Tim said and turned off the communications with a sigh, one that was made wearier by Steph eyeing him suspiciously from the nearby seat. 

“’Supes’ huh?” Dick said from the pilot’s seat.

“I’m working,” Tim quickly made himself busy.

:Later:  
The two Batwings landed outside the hostile zone. They were taking readings and preparing for battle when the Supers joined them.

“Batman!” Supergirl floated down to get in his face. “How could you? You let me, everyone, think the worst of you.”

“To keep him safe that was what was important.”

“I still don’t know why you can’t trust me,” she said but didn’t expect a response and didn’t get one.

“Robin!” Superboy dive-bombed and scooped him up in a hug. “I’m glad to see you. That was way freaky. You know I’m not a wuss or anything but Mr. Roboto jumped me out of nowhere.” Tim only listened to this babbling with half an ear, choosing instead to keep an eye on the reactions of his siblings and parents. Dick was worryingly tense, Batman unreadable, Spoiler and Red Hood more amused than anything, and Superman wore a unusually deep frown as he floated down to join them.

The heavy hitters lead the charge into the gray metal headquarters. The bats followed right behind, knocking out anyone the supers missed.

“That hurt more than expected,” Superman remarked in the first break in the fight.

“I told you to take it easy.” Batman nagged while reaching into his belt. “I’m not giving you more than two of these.” He said while injecting medicine into Superman’s arm.

“This will be plenty.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll take one of those.” Jason retrieved a weapon and ammo belt from a downed alien.

“Red’s got an alien gun everyone, look out.” Steph announced as she swung from a pipe on the ceiling.

Irons worked very well in his first team situation, especially considering the team mostly consisted of family members and/or energetic teens. Superboy got great satisfaction in carrying Tim around. He didn’t try to keep him out of the fight but liked picking him up out of the way of any danger and dropping him on badguys’ heads. Thankfully Jason was the only one unprofessional enough to make a few sarcastic coos and wolf whistles at this behavior in the middle of an alien invasion.

The cyborg turned out to be a technopath capable entity with a grudge against Superman. Originally human but mutated, digitized, and integrated with Earth, Kryptonian, and War World technology. Tim was so joining B when they dissected this thing later. Because he was a technopath he could control their technology. Irons had to be saved from his own armor and Tim had to drop a good half of his belt.

Other than that the fight wasn’t much to write home about. They easily cut power to the missile before the Cyborg could launch it at Metropolis. Hal showed up half-way through the battle and traded blows with Mongul. Batman kept all his kids and Superboy away from Mongul because he was super strong and wouldn’t hold back against someone young. Tim took it as a good sign that Bruce didn’t simply shove Superboy into Mongul’s path and turn a blind eye.

0Later0  
Tim picked up his phone only to be greeted by, “This is so unfair! I’m going to fly over to see you.”

“Don’t. You’ll get me in trouble too.”

“Why can’t I stay at your place?” Since moving to Kansas Kon had discovered whole new levels of whining. Tim was glad he was with the Kents, though. It made their relationship feel less incestuous. 

“Because, Kon,” Tim liked having a real name to call him and used it frequently. Clark had named him, after a brief freak out and Bruce lecturing him that he needed to be a good dad regardless. “Dick and Jason are worried you’re going to molest me. They still haven’t left Gotham, thanks for that.”

“What are they so worried about? You could probably kick my ass.”

“Plus we’re getting the house ready for the baby. I might actually come to your place in a week when the newborn’s here.” The baby was the excuse Clark was using to put Kon with his parents and not think about him. Tim planned to talk to him about that if he didn't get over it soon.

“Right forgot about that.”

“Don’t you like the Kents?”

“They’re cool. It’s not their fault there’s nothing to do here.”

“I’ll write you another book and movie list.”

“That’s just postponing the inevitable. Hey, I was reading on how your brother had his own team when he was our age. We should get one of those.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'll just leave you to imagine the lecture Tim got. Whatever you picture is probably more dramatic than what I could have written.


End file.
